Java

SSH Tunnel Authenticate with a SecureString Password

Demonstrates the Chilkat SshTunnel.AuthenticateSecPw method, which authenticates using SecureString login and password objects. The first argument is the login and the second is the password.

Background: Because a tunnel process is long-lived and holds its SSH credentials for its entire lifetime, protecting them in memory is worthwhile. A SecureString keeps the value encrypted under a randomly generated session key. Populate it from a value obtained at runtime rather than a hard-coded literal.

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import com.chilkatsoft.chilkat2.ChilkatException;
import com.chilkatsoft.chilkat2.SecureString;
import com.chilkatsoft.chilkat2.SshTunnel;

public class ChilkatExample {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Demonstrates the SshTunnel.AuthenticateSecPw method, which authenticates using SecureString
        // login and password objects.  The 1st argument is the login and the 2nd is the password.

        SshTunnel tunnel = new SshTunnel();

        // The tunnel forwards accepted local connections to this destination through the SSH server.
        tunnel.setDestHostname("db.internal.example.com");
        tunnel.setDestPort(5432);

        // Connect to the SSH server.  This performs the TCP/proxy connection and SSH handshake, but
        // does not authenticate yet.
        int sshPort = 22;
        try {
            tunnel.connect("ssh.example.com", sshPort);
        } catch (ChilkatException e) {
            System.out.println(e.getLastErrorText());
            return;
        }

        // Normally you would not hard-code the password in source.  You should instead obtain it
        // from an interactive prompt, environment variable, or a secrets vault.
        String password = "mySshPassword";

        // Place the login and password into SecureString objects.
        SecureString secureLogin = new SecureString();
        secureLogin.append("mySshLogin");
        SecureString securePassword = new SecureString();
        securePassword.append(password);

        try {
            tunnel.authenticateSecPw(secureLogin, securePassword);
        } catch (ChilkatException e) {
            System.out.println(e.getLastErrorText());
            return;
        }

        System.out.println("Authenticated with secure strings.");

        // After authenticating, call BeginAccepting to start listening for local connections to forward.

        boolean waitForThreadExit = true;
        try {
            tunnel.closeTunnel(waitForThreadExit);
        } catch (ChilkatException e) {
            System.out.println(e.getLastErrorText());
            return;
        }
    }
}